[Oe List ...] conversation on white trash racism

[George Holcombe via OE]

My own experience has been that people who live in different worlds have more that a little difficulty talking with each other. I have more than a few relatives and others who live in a racist world with far different views on the economy, the poor, etc. They sometimes use the same words and mean the opposite.  I do not find they are up for conversation, idea sharing or interest in learning other views. I have never found any of the religious or spiritual approaches do more that aggravate the relationship. They know who you are, just as you do them. Polite passing of words is about all you can do.  On a rare occasion I have had one or two seek me out after a severe trauma in their life.  Even then, sorting out the fears and looking for new horizons can be a difficulty because they sense disloyalty to their ideology and their friends. I remember an HIV patient's father I was attending back in the 80’s, his father cursed him out on his death bed for being gay, while his mother wept. It was more than a tragic scene. But there is always hope. Almost 5 yrs. later attending a meeting of parents with HIV children the couple showed up very positive and supportive. Never learned what caused the turn around.

George Holcombe
geowanda1 at me.com

"Whatever the problem, community is the answer.  There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about."  Margaret Wheatley


> On Sep 27, 2017, at 5:53 AM, mary hampton via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
> 
> Marshall,
> Many colleagues have sent words of wisdom.
>  
> I would add only one piece of founder’s wisdom – from George Fox, Quaker, aka Religious Society of Friends.
> “recognize that of God in every person” and if that is not hard enough “Go cheerfully through the world, recognizing that of God in every person.”
>  
> Obviously the rub is when every or any person does not mirror an aspect of God we admire or want to see!
>  
> Grace, Peace, Love and Light
> Mary hampton  
> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10
>  
> From: W. J. via OE <mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2017 10:19 PM
> To: W. J. <mailto:synergi at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Oe List ...] conversation on white trash racism
>  
> Last night I was stunned to overhear my next-door neighbors sitting on their front porch and loudly spewing forth their toxic honky racist shit.
> This was in the wake of Trump's Alabama comments that stirred up a lot of racist indignation that denied there was anything 'racial' involved in protesting against racism. 
> It was not just the nasty content, but more the tone of their comments and their South Carolina accents that were just so offensive to have to overhear. I closed my window, but that didn't stop their conversation from seeping into my living room like sewage in a Texas flood.
> Among their themes:
> 1. They're still fighting their version of the Civil War, which was not about slavery, since "poor white folks had to pick cotton too".
> 2. They still hate Martin Luther King, Jr. and resent the fact that everywhere they go, there has to be a 'Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard' in town.
> 3. Their sense of white entitlement allows them to consider themselves 'better than' black people or more 'civilized'.
> 4. Their cultural values--including their racism--are considered normative. Thus their racist biases are invisible to them.
> 5. Other racial groups are considered intruders (unless they are 'silent' and subservient and don't 'rock the boat' of white superiority).
> 6. Genocide is implicitly OK--especially if it can be justified under 'war' conditions. There was a story about Marines wiping out one quarter million Muslims on an island. That was a good way to 'fix thatproblem'. Other racial/ethnic/religious groups are considered subhuman and can be treated accordingly.
> I could go on, but my point is that I just don't like these neighbors. Fortunately, they're not around that often. And since they're old, they will soon die off, taking their racist prejudices with them. They are shrinking minority desperately holding out against cultural change.
> But they--and millions like them--elected Donald Trump. So we have to deal with a white racist cultural backlash with global implications.
> So here I am, surrounded by Trump voters like Davey Crockett at the Alamo (yes, I'm aware of the racist imagery <https://www.texasobserver.org/remember-alamo-differently/> here). And even if these folks never say another word, they still think like racist 'poor white trash <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash>' who had to compete with other economically disadvantaged groups.
> I realize that I benefit enormously from 'white male privilege'--including the advantages of a perspective informed by global experience, advanced education, a multicultural context, and a determination to examine and confront my own implicit/unconscious assumptions of white racist privileging.
> I'd like to begin a conversation that will explore how to survive and thrive and even support cultural change/transformation in this context--without getting pot shots aimed at my living room.
> Marshall Jones
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